Migraine with aura? Or something else?

[ckelley116]

The first thing I want to say is that this is something that's happening to my husband, not to me. So I'm going to provide as much information as I have, but since I've given him strict instructions to stop telling me when this stuff happens if he's not going to do anything about it, I don't have all the info.

He's gotten migraines with aura since he was a teenager (he's almost 50 now). He tends to get them when there's a weather disturbance, like a storm coming, or if he's slept too much or too little. He does not have anxiety and is rarely stressed out. His diet is terrible (he still eats like he's 25) and he doesn't exercise. At all. Nor does he go to doctors, even for regular checkups. The last time he saw a doctor was in 2013 when I forced him to go after he was experiencing numb patches around his chest. Nothing came of it, and it doesn't happen anymore.

Anyway, he describes the aura in the most common way I've seen it described - a visual disturbance that feels like he's looking at something through wet glass. I believe it happens in both eyes, and sometimes he gets pain, sometimes not. About 9-10 years ago we were at the gym (probably one of the last times he went to the gym, TBH) and he was on the treadmill when he suddenly got a blind spot in what he said was about 1/3 of his vision. From what I remember, it moved across his field of vision and eventually went away. I don't remember if it was one eye or both, but he was freaked out. At some point after that he saw an eye doctor who apparently noticed nothing wrong, even though I don't know if he brought it up. Although he continues to occasionally get the traditional aura, it never happened again, at least to my knowledge, until last summer. Then nothing again, until this week. He told me last night that it happened Sunday night and Monday night. He describes it as "jelly-like" and seems to believe it has something to do with aging, but as far as I know this is not a common complaint. So now I'm freaking out that he's been having tiny seizures, or has a neurological condition like MS or something that will cause him to go blind. This is probably a very silly worry, since to the best of my knowledge nothing else has changed since the first episode ~10 years ago, but if it is something to be worried about, we'll never know because he refuses to take care of himself or get anything checked out when it happens. He doesn't even have health insurance; he refuses.

I'm doing my best to convince myself that this is just another form of aura and to stop worrying about it, but the two episodes in a row after 6 months of nothing has me pretty freaked. Has any one ever experienced anything like this?

[RadioGaGa]

I had Glioblastoma anxiety for seven years. And it was constant. It didn't come and go, the anxiety was there, week in, week out. So I became something of a "self declared" expert on the subject. I'll try to put your fears to bed, but then again: Disclaimer! Only his doctor can do this. I am not a doctor.

Migraine with Aura

Common complaint, a lot of people suffer from this. The aura doesn't have to be the same every time. A migraine aura can be diagnosed by symptoms alone usually, which include the 'aura' being seen in BOTH eyes, lasting a long duration (anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes - sometimes even longer!). And no, the aura doesn't have to be followed by a migraine. Some people will find they get an aura and get a migraine, whereas other times they may just get the aura.

Migraine auras can (understandably) cause a lot of anxiety because they can mimic serious conditions like stroke and seizures. Some people find their speech is affected by a migraine aura.

Occipital lobe seizures

These are uncommon. When occipital lobe seizures happen, they're characteristically short (lasting less than 30 seconds, compared to temporal lobe seizures for example, which last anyhwere from 2 to 5 minutes). In occipital lobe seizures, the person may see blobs or shapes or even images repeat themselves. (I remember reading a case report where the guy saw an image of himself, in his left eye only get up from a chair repeatedly.) (In another case report, the person saw the image of tigger from Winnie the Pooh repetitively in one of their eyes).

Again, with this type of seizure, they are of very short duration and would occur many times each day

Now you're maybe worrying about tumours in this area? Meh, forget that. Brain tumours (benign and malignant totals) occur in about 7 per 100,000 people per year. About 5% occur in the occipital lobe area. 5% of 7 is 0.3, so the chances of a tumour in the occipital lobe is 3 per 1,000,000.

Two episodes within six months is fine and nothing to worry about. Tumours, once they cause seizures, do so MANY times EVERY day. They DO NOT stop for months at a time.
The case for stroke is self-explanatory, so we don't need to worry about that either.

Hope this has put your mind at rest - but again, I'm not a doctor. I just researched brain tumours (and their manifestations) heavily for seven years and I encounter them through my line of work. good luck!

[BlueIris]

Auras are weird, and they don't always manifest in the same way. When I was getting them all the time the visuals sometimes varied dramatically.

[ckelley116]

I had Glioblastoma anxiety for seven years. And it was constant. It didn't come and go, the anxiety was there, week in, week out. So I became something of a "self declared" expert on the subject. I'll try to put your fears to bed, but then again: Disclaimer! Only his doctor can do this. I am not a doctor.

Migraine with Aura

Common complaint, a lot of people suffer from this. The aura doesn't have to be the same every time. A migraine aura can be diagnosed by symptoms alone usually, which include the 'aura' being seen in BOTH eyes, lasting a long duration (anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes - sometimes even longer!). And no, the aura doesn't have to be followed by a migraine. Some people will find they get an aura and get a migraine, whereas other times they may just get the aura.

Migraine auras can (understandably) cause a lot of anxiety because they can mimic serious conditions like stroke and seizures. Some people find their speech is affected by a migraine aura.

Occipital lobe seizures

These are uncommon. When occipital lobe seizures happen, they're characteristically short (lasting less than 30 seconds, compared to temporal lobe seizures for example, which last anyhwere from 2 to 5 minutes). In occipital lobe seizures, the person may see blobs or shapes or even images repeat themselves. (I remember reading a case report where the guy saw an image of himself, in his left eye only get up from a chair repeatedly.) (In another case report, the person saw the image of tigger from Winnie the Pooh repetitively in one of their eyes).

Again, with this type of seizure, they are of very short duration and would occur many times each day

Now you're maybe worrying about tumours in this area? Meh, forget that. Brain tumours (benign and malignant totals) occur in about 7 per 100,000 people per year. About 5% occur in the occipital lobe area. 5% of 7 is 0.3, so the chances of a tumour in the occipital lobe is 3 per 1,000,000.

Two episodes within six months is fine and nothing to worry about. Tumours, once they cause seizures, do so MANY times EVERY day. They DO NOT stop for months at a time.
The case for stroke is self-explanatory, so we don't need to worry about that either.

Hope this has put your mind at rest - but again, I'm not a doctor. I just researched brain tumours (and their manifestations) heavily for seven years and I encounter them through my line of work. good luck!

Thanks! I'll admit I wasn't really thinking brain tumor; I've been down that rabbit hole before for myself and learned enough to know that if he experienced something once, then not again for 10 years, it's highly unlikely to be a tumor. We're both comfortable with the normal aura; he's gotten them for 35 years and they're entirely predictable. It's the different visual disturbance he occasionally has, with the blind spot. I was thinking something more along the lines of MS, or something else slow-to-develop that would affect his optic nerve or something else in his brain. And since he's so vehemently opposed to doing anything related to taking care of his health, it would be something we wouldn't catch until it was likely much too late. The thing is that I don't know if this different "aura" he talks about is in both eyes. I told him not to talk about it with me, so I can't very well ask him now Logically I know that if a decade passed between instances of this specific visual disturbance, it's unlikely to be anything terrible. But because he's so casual about his health, when something concerns him, it concerns me 100000x more.

But if it is possible for an aura to manifest in different ways, and he has no other symptoms that I know of, I'll do my best to chalk it up to that. Thank you!

[Joystick]

I have had auras going back about 12 years. They come in clusters - at first it was just missing a small piece of vision, like a pixel had gone, and I would rest for a while and it would go away. The next lot it was like sparkling at the edge of vision and the same thing happened. The next lot it began to creep all over the vision - one big flashing sparkle, lasted about 30 mins and then feeling washed out afterwards. Only once have I had an actual headache. I haven't had one for at least 5 years and then yesterday one started in my right eye - the sparkling began - so I had been prescribed Sumatriptans during the last session and still had some. I found those and took one and that stopped it in its tracks. I still feel wiped out and had a bit of a headache and stiffness around the upper back (but I also have PMR). At the time I felt like I had low blood sugar (unlikely) and wanted to eat just before this. I anticipate, if they follow past patterns, then I can expect another 4 or 5 of these before they settle down again. I shall request a new prescription and wait and see what happens. I've had my eyes tested recently and all was well.

Don't over-worry about it - maybe just check with the GP (if you can get to one these days).

[.Poppy.]

It's not a bad idea to keep his doctor informed of his migraines and if there are any changes. I've had occasional MRIs for migraines - not really because they suspected anything wrong but because there was a major change and they just wanted to be sure. The last one I had was actually because I had a migraine with aura (not common for me), which gave me a blindspot in my vision and I was having speech trouble + the worst pain I've ever had - I swear I thought I was having a stroke. I went to the ER and it was "just" a migraine but my doctor did recommend a neurologist check and MRI just in case - ultimately, nothing was wrong and I haven't had an aura or a migraine that bad again for 6+ years.

So, migraines can be weird and they are different for everyone but it certainly doesn't hurt to keep your doc informed.

[NoraB]

I had a DOOZY of a migraine the other week and my meds didn't touch it. I couldn't move my head an inch without being in pain. In the end my husband rang 111 and shoved the phone at me because they wanted to make sure I was alive?

Me to the triage nurse: I have taken my usual medication (15/500 Co-codamol) with Ibuprofen and it's not working. It's having no effect whatsoever, and it usually does the trick..

Triage nurse (after ascertaining that I wasn't having a stroke): A GP will phone you within the hour (it was two) - meanwhile take paracetamol and Ibuprofen if you need to.

My husband ended up speaking to the out of hours GP because I couldn't understand him. We ended up paying £20 for a stronger painkiller but one which I have to take Omeprazole with (and I can't take it) so I had to ride the pain out..

Migraines are flippin' orrible and anybody on here who suffers with them has my heartfelt sympathy.

[Cusper]

I had one last month and it scared the s out of me! I am a huge health anxiety person and It FREAKED ME OUT!!! However turns out my very calm husband has them once and a while and was not phased by it. Then when I was complaining about it to my friend, she had one as well just months before me and described it exactly how I did. Apparently some people have them all of the time. I told my mom about it and she said that her eyes do something else right before she has a migraine but apparently migraines run in our family. It was very scary at the time though. But what I did do was take a magnesium bis glycinate while it was happening to calm me down and the whole thing lasted about 15 minutes. I did have a headache following but not as terrible as a full blown migraine.